Chapter 96 - A Taste Of Power And Control

In the Hasegawa's Conference room, are five men whose ages range from late 60s to 80s.

To any outsider who do not know any better, they would simply look like a bunch of old geezers having warm sake, but to anyone in the know, they will recognize the five as the most powerful men of the Hasegawa Clan.

"We've been on this for an hour now. Can't we just let the girl go?" Hasegawa's First Elder, Hasegawa Gorou's uncle, and the former Hasegawa Clan Head scratches his brows in annoyance.

"Let her go? After what she did?"  The Third Elder, Gorou's father, sneers.

"Why make things complicated when it's not? That's why we don't use civilian law. Gorou's kid harassed the treasurer's daughter for months. The girl decided to fight back for the first time, which made Hideki unreasonably snap, which made the girl snap too. We all know what happened next. We should be thankful that Gorou's kid wasn't killed." The First Elder explains in dismissal.

"First Elder, I know my son's fault…" Gorou argues bitterly to the First Elder.

"It's just… excessive, don't you think?"

"Excessive?! Hah!" The second elder, Gorou's second uncle, cuts in with a mock.

"Isn't that nice, Gorou? What would you call your son's actions?"

"T-that…" Gorou struggles to argue.

"He's paid for it, second elder. He was exiled, lost his powers, was even possessed by a demon. The girl kicking a man down who already hit rock bottom, is indeed, quite excessive." The fourth elder, and Gorou's older brother, argues.

"Rock bottom… And whose fault it was that lead to him hitting it?" The second elder argues back.

"I don't care if he hit rock bottom. Hideki tried to kill the girl, and the girl was simply defending herself. In quite an excessive manner, yes, but Hideki trying to kill her released the resentment that she has been building up." The first elder defends Sayuri.

"This is why you weren't exactly a respected clan leader, brother. Why are you defending this girl from a distant branch family anyway?" The third elder asks with a sneer.

"I don't know. Just to annoy you?" The first elder returns with a sneer, ignoring the slight on his former leadership.

"And, I could care less about the girl. It's about how you run things. Letting that little devil do what he wants? Even when he's now powerless? That will make the rest of the clan's trust in the main family, very fickle." He continues.

"Oh, I worry about this clan's future under you, brother…" The second elder laments, wiping a fake tear towards the Third Elder's direction.

"You too. You're really smart, you know that? Sticking the sister of the person in Hideki's delusion to him? Isn't that smart?" He mocks Gorou too.

The third elder and Gorou do not bother replying.

"So. What were you three planning to do to the girl? Before we caught a whiff of this mess?" The First Elder asks Gorou, the Third Elder, and the Fourth Elder.

"…" The three people being asked refuse to answer.

"Come on. Answer. Or I will make sure that this discussion will never end." The Second Elder says.

"And no lies. Remember, I'm retired. I have nothing better to do to occupy my time." The First Elder adds.

"We were supposed to give her the injuries that she has given Hideki." Gorou confesses.

"And cripple her powers too…" The Third Elder adds.

"I do not support the Third Elder and the Clan Head with the crippling part, but she needs to get what she has given." Fourth Elder says.

"Wow." The First Elder shakes his head.

"And what would Hideki's punishment be? For attempted murder?" He asks.

"Clan exile…" Gorou says through gritted teeth.

"Ah… Well. Fair enough." The First Elder shrugs, finding the arrangement acceptable this time.

"Fair…" The Second Elder scoffs.

"I guess they're going to 'exile' him to another ally clan. Or your private villa in some distant village. What's the point of that?" He quips to the First Elder.

"Sends the same message to the clansmen anyway." The First Elder does not care about the details of the punishment.

"No. Exile is too light still. He should be BANISHED. Never to return again. Should he stir trouble outside, he should suffer the consequences of it. No bailing him out and let him be incriminated by civilian law. If he offends someone he shouldn't have offended, and get beaten up to near death. There's no rescuing." The Second Elder suggests.

"BUT HE'S MY SON!" Gorou cannot take the Second Elder's suggestion.

"AND HE'S MY GRANDNEPHEW." The Second Elder matches Gorou's yelling.

"AND A DISAPPOINTMENT TO OUR BLOOD!" He adds, embarrassing Gorou and slighting the Third Elder.

"Alright… Father, Uncle, please..." The Fourth Elder calms the two down.

"Banishment is too much… But why don't we have Hideki abandon his Hasegawa name while in exile? He will still live in comfort, of course. What do you think, brother?" He asks Gorou, and at the same time it being an effort to reach a compromise with the Second Elder.

Gorou takes a few moments, before accepting the suggestion.

Before he can express it however, the Second Elder interrupts.

"It'll just be another repeat of what happened in his first exile. He must have offended someone, and got almost beaten to death for it. What if that happens again, we accept him back to the clan again? Then he'll make trouble for us again?"

"We will have to force him to take a more active approach in earning his name back." Gorou haggles.

"How would you do that?" The Second Elder asks.

"I'll have to force him to take a more… active effort in earning his name back to the clan. If that doesn't work, uncle. Then we'll go with banishment." Gorou asks for a compromise.

"Keep your words, kid." The Second Elder accepts it.

"Alright then. Cripple the girl. Exile the boy. Is that it?" The First Elder summarizes.

"Yes." The room reach an agreement.

"Is that so?" A man suddenly appears in their presence out of thin air, with a question.

The appearing act of the man is ignored as they see that he is carrying the gagged and tied unconscious Hideki on his shoulder.

"LET HIM GO!" Gorou is the first one to react, also noticing that Hideki, who was all healed up, is once again beaten up black and blue.

"OR WHAT?" Fumio asks back as he rests the sharp of his katana on Hideki's neck.

Unlike his anger after visiting his sister, he is now much calmer. He had already vented enough of his anger to Hideki while abducting the man.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The Second Elder, despite his old body, dashes towards Fumio at a great speed.

"No!" Gorou shouts to stop the Second Elder, fearing that the stranger will harm Hideki.

Unfortunately for him, the Second Elder is not at all concerned about Hideki's safety and is already throwing a karate punch to Fumio's face.

*whoosh* Fumio easily dodges the Second Elder's attack, and while doing so, he infuses a bit of his spiritual energy to the hilt of his katana and smashes the bottom of it to the Second Elder's face.

*Thump*

The Second Elder is already unconscious before even hitting the floor.

Fumio then throws Hideki to the side and takes the Second Elder as a hostage replacement.

"WAIT!" The First Elder stops Gorou and the rest of the elders from taking action.

"What do you want?" He asks Fumio.

"Last year, while I was on a trip abroad, two of my most brilliant people got married. As a bonus, I sent them for a long vacation." Fumio starts his made-up story.

"But that kid over there…" He points at the unconscious Hideki, "…turned what could have been a nice honeymoon, and the start of a new happily married life, into a..." He takes a deep breath.

"Do you all know what I'm saying?" He leaves the rest to their imagination.

The Hasegawa men are speechless.

"So. I'm here to collect… from those who can actually pay." Fumio declares as he 'accidentally' nicks the unconscious second elder's neck.

A few seconds later, blood start leaking out from the small wound. The Hasegawa men swallow nervously seeing this.

"We are at a disadvantage here, and we also cannot take your words at face value. May we know who you are?" The First Elder, despite being older than Fumio's disguise appear to be, asks politely.

"Are you asking which clan I'm from?" Fumio asks in return.

"…" The First Elder's silence answers his question.

"You don't want this… private discontent turn into an inter-clan issue, would you?" Fumio asks, hoping that his bluffing works.

"You still have not answered my question earlier? What do you want?" The First Elder asks.

"I want you to 'Unkill' my subordinates." Fumio declares.

"T-that…" The Hasegawa men almost stagger at Fumio's demand.

"It's not possible, right?" Fumio asks them.

"So how about this? Because your child killed two of my men, how about I take the lives of two of your own?" He suggests.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The Third Elder can no longer take it as he draws his sword.

"Brother, stop." The First Elder stops him.

"No. If he's really here to collect lives, he would have killed Hideki already. Or brother (2nd elder)." The Third Elder says as he marches to Fumio while unsheathing his katana.

Putting Fumio in his range, he quickly thrusts his sword forward.

Unfortunately for the Third Elder, he severely overestimated his abilities.

Fumio easily evades the blade thrust and, "*WHACK*", throws a very fast roundhouse kick to the elder's temple, sending the elder to the floor unconscious.

Fumio is starting to feel anxious. Not only because he already spent 10 percent of his spiritual energy on his instant knockout attacks on the two elders, but also because the Third Elder calling his bluff out affected the First Elder, Fourth Elder, and Gorou.

"The only reason why I haven't drawn blood yet, is because I'm a reasonable man, and someone who does not killing." He says, as an indirect way of dissuading the men from resorting to violence.

While he easily knocked out the two elders and is confident in doing the same to the First Elder because they are nothing compared to their prime, he is not sure if he can do it as easily to the Fourth Elder and Gorou who were both peak B-Class in their prime years.

"Technically, your elder is right. I actually do not want to kill anyone from the Hasegawa… well aside from Hideki. But I still seek compensation for my men." He continues to demand.

"Well, this is not the right way to go about it, no? To come marching in after beating our clansman?" The Fourth Elder asks.

Fumio does not like the sly vibes that the Fourth Elder is giving him.

"How do you expect me to behave after seeing the man who killed people I treasure?" Fumio asks back.

"Don't try applying the civil way with me. Had you given up the kid to the civilian law and had him receive the punishment he deserves, it wouldn't have come to this." He adds.

"Still. You should have informed us of your visit. This is rather improper." The Fourth Elder argues.

"Elder, or whatever your position is. The moment you decided to simply exile the little devil after the things he has done, any decorum has already lost its meaning."

Then, Fumio suddenly disappears from the Hasegawa men's visions, and the unconscious Second Elder falls limply to the floor.

The disappearing act shocks them greatly.

"If I don't leave here today without getting the compensation my dead people and I deserve..."

They continue to hear Fumio's voice while Fumio's figure evades them. 

Suddenly, the Fourth Elder gets goosebumps. His instincts are warranted the next moment, he feels a sharp object pressed on his neck.

"I will just have to bloody my blade and offer your heads to their graves… and get away with it without consequences..." Fumio concludes his threat as he shows himself behind the Fourth Elder.

."…" The Hasegawa men get goosebumps and they start sweating cold.

They exchange glances with each other and they know what each other are thinking.